Colby Rottler on a decade of ADNI, and the doors it opened for his family
Colby Rottler has spent his life showing up for other people. He served 27 years in the Navy, rising from an enlisted sailor to a naval flight officer, then spent 25 years at the Federal Reserve Bank. At 50, just for fun, he took up cooking at Johnson & Wales and became a private chef. Now 78 and living in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, he still gets auctioned off for charity dinners and delivers meals through Lasagna Love.
So, when he read more than a decade ago that researchers were seeking men between 60 and 80 for Alzheimer's research, volunteering felt like second nature.
“You have to help people in this world,” he says. “That's what I'm trying to do.”
“The last time I saw him, he was in a hospital bed, curled up, and he couldn't talk,” Colby recalls. “It's just sad to see somebody so bright end up with a disease like this.”
He reached out, and the team at Butler's Memory and Aging Program (MAP) called him in for PET scans, MRIs, a lumbar puncture, blood work, and genetic testing. Before sharing his results, the young neuroscientists gently asked whether he wanted to know.
“I said I would rather know if I have a problem, so I can address it,” he says.
The answer was reassuring: no signs of Alzheimer's. When his wife, Marie, asked why he had done it at all, the answer was simple: He hadn't known what they would find, and that was the point.
“Maybe the scientists can find out why I don't have the disease, and maybe there's a gene I have that some young person can turn into a medicine that helps somebody.”
“You've got three or four appointments a year, two or three hours each time, but that's a small thing to give. Remember, time and talents.”
“I had to say, I think you have a problem. We have to go to a doctor and handle this.”
What followed was a frustrating search for care. He called dozens of specialists across two states and landed on one waiting list after another, unable to find anyone who could help.
Then he thought of the people he already knew at Butler.
“I said, maybe you can direct me somewhere. And they said, Colby, bring Marie here, we'll help you.”
His voice catches at the memory. Marie was seen quickly and became the first person in New England to receive a newly approved Alzheimer's medication by prescription, which has reduced the plaque in her brain and slowed the disease's progression.
Colby is candid that his years in research made the difference.
“If I wasn't in a clinical trial and I didn't know the people there, I wouldn't have had access or understood who to call,” he says. “I wouldn't know enough to get my wife the help she needed when she needed it.”
“These people are like my grandchildren,” he says.
He has watched them get engaged, have babies, and become neurologists, and when he has the chance, he bakes them cookies.
“They listen to you, they take the time to explain things. I'm constantly learning.”
That connection is part of why he keeps coming back.
“This gives us something to do and a connection with people, and I would never want to lose it.”
He talks up the studies to friends his age, reminding them that the tests are thorough, cost nothing, and could catch a problem early.
“I don't do it for praise. I don't do it for money. I just do it because it's the right thing to do.”
For his family, that willingness has already made all the difference, and he is not slowing down.
“Whatever I can do to help. I think it's important.”